Post navigation

Anxiety In College Students: Why It Happens And How To Help

You plan for it throughout most of your high school education – if not earlier. You buy new clothes, bedsheets, and shower shoes. You mark up your course catalog before deciding which classes will be the lucky winners.

Then you arrive at college. You expect it to be the “time of your life” – as everyone’s told you it will be.

But instead:

You hide in your room, feeling shuddering waves of panic hit you as your hand hovers over the doorknob.

Homesickness hits your gut like a case of bad seafood, though you would have described yourself as independent otherwise.

You sit with piles of work in your lap, unable to get started because it feels like it’s just too much and you’re going to fail anyway.

You toss and turn all night, obsessing about whether you’ll make it or embarrass yourself forever.

You develop meticulous rituals, trying to to control your fear by controlling your environment.

You find yourself avoiding social situations, as it’s just too tiring to keep appearing “up” in front of everyone else.

You feel physically tired or achy frequently, and have trouble focusing.

Everything makes you irritated, or defensive. Why won’t people just leave you alone?

If some or all of these describe YOU, you are likely to be experiencing symptoms of anxiety.

Even though this time in your life should be – and still CAN be – wonderful and memorable, it is also quite common for it to be a time of high anxiety.

Anxiety In College Students: Why Does It Happen?

Why? College students are facing a time of huge change in their lives. For many of you, it’s the first time you’ve:

Lived away from home.

Managed your own classes and coursework.

Been transplanted into an entirely new social group.

Had to coordinate the mundane aspects of adulthood, like laundry, scheduling doctor’s appointments, and getting your car repaired.

Lived with someone outside of your family.

Who wouldn’t be at least a LITTLE stressed out by having all of that hit them, all at once?

In addition, college students are facing unique challenges in this generation, such as:

An uncertain future in the workplace.

Mounting student loan debt.

So now you’ve got short-term and long-term worries on your mind…

And that’s not to mention more individualized concerns that some of you will also have:

Having a long-distance relationship with your boyfriend/girlfriend back home.

Re-negotiating your place in the family as you come back home for breaks. (Sometimes literally, when your brother or sister has taken over your old room.)

Adjusting from the big city to small college town or vice versa.

Experiencing family crises while away from home, such as a long-term illness in a parent or grandparent while you’re living hours away.

I hope it is clear now that anxiety in college students happens for a reason! There’s a lot of stress that comes with this otherwise exciting time. Who wouldn’t be sometimes overwhelmed – with all this going on?

If you’re struggling with anxiety today, I want to make it clear to you that you are not alone. In fact, you’re a part of a quiet epidemic of college-aged anxiety crises within our pressure-filled society.

So don’t tell yourself that you’re a failure, or you’re weak. That’s not true. In reality, your mind and body is just responding to the huge weight of stress on you.

It’s telling you that the way things are right now is too much, and something has to change.

Anxiety in College Students: Making Changes For A Better Life

Fortunately, anxiety is a highly treatable problem, and there’s many different ways to approach it. Below, you’ll find a few resources my clients have told me have been helpful to them. Most people find the best results come from blending more than one solution to deal with their anxiety.

Work with a counselor to better understand your anxiety triggers, identify your most effective coping strategies, and generally look for ways to reduce stress in your life. I am obviously biased in favor of that option, as I am an anxiety counselor. However, my clients tell me that it really makes a difference for them to have specific tools to combat and prevent anxiety. They feel personally empowered from a partnership with a licensed counselor.

Investigate medication options. Usually, a psychiatrist is best suited to prescribe anti-anxiety medication. They deal with these medications all day every day and so they know all about the benefits and potential side effects of the medications they prescribe. While your family physician can probably write a script for you, they won’t have that same level of experience with the medications, so they may not be as useful a resource. Most likely, if given a medication, you will be prescribed a mild SSRI, which can help increase focus, reduce anxious thoughts, and lessen the physical symptoms of panic.

Join an anxiety support group or online community. The power of a group is in showing you that what you’re feeling is normal. A group can also give you ideas and tips you haven’t thought to try yet. Since groups vary widely in usefulness, try to get a recommendation for a group from someone you trust.

Adjust your diet. There is potentially a benefit to be had from reducing stimulants like caffeine in your diet. These can make you jittery, increasing anxiety. Avoiding refined sugars can also help, keeping you from quickly spiking in energy and then crashing abruptly.

Increase your exercise. Many of my clients tell me they burn off a lot of anxiety by power-walking or engaging an a team sport. Anxiety is a problem experienced physically as well as mentally, so when you’re more physically tired, you have less fuel for your anxiety!

Engage in meditation or prayer. Taking the time to breathe and practice being calm cannot be underestimated in importance. It might seem small, but that little break helps train your brain that calm, not panic, is the desired emotion. It can also help you redirect stress energy during a panic attack.

Anxiety In College Students: Next Steps

If you have anxiety (or are a parent who has worries about their college student) there are lots of resources out there to help. You are not alone, and you can see big changes in your anxiety using some of the tips above…even in a short amount of time.

If you’re trying the things above, and still feeling stuck, or just would rather talk to a human being about what you’re going through, give me a call at 817-677-8336. I offer a free phone consultation for parents and college students, to see if I can be helpful to them as a counselor or direct them towards further resources.

Don’t let another minute of the best time in your life be consumed by anxiety. Take back your life.